If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Golden rod honey, dark or light

The was a flower show/sale at our local cooperative extension and our bee club had a booth with honey, charts and an observation hive (fake but none the less). My mentor tells me that goldenrod honey in light. I thought the opposite from my experience from the state fair. He says goldenrod is light but knot weed (bamboo) is dark and they bloom at the same time. It doesn't take a lot of bamboo nectar to discolor golden rod so dark goldenrod has bamboo in it. If it it dark he sells it as bamboo.

Re: Golden rod honey, dark or light

Re: Golden rod honey, dark or light

I believe that it depends upon the location. I have produced a lot of goldenrod honey in Dutchess Cty NY that was very light colored. I also have bought thousands of pounds from Western NY that was much darker. Could be some Bamboo in it. One super of Bamboo honey will significantly darken a ton of nice light honey. A good reason to keep it separate.

Re: Golden rod honey, dark or light

I have often seen honey extracted right after the goldenrod bloom that is as light as the earlier extraction. In other words, the goldenrod was as light as the clover/sumac/basswood/etc. I have also had the fall crop come out dark, which would be the bamboo/goldenrod honey.

Re: Golden rod honey, dark or light

The honey I get from goldenrod is amber. Boy, it sure does stink when it's curing in the hive. However, it's my favorite. I have heard that aster honey can be dark, and both flowers bloom at the same time. Depending on the aster content it can be darker.

Re: Golden rod honey, dark or light

Originally Posted by sqkcrk

Listen to Bill, Ace. He knows what he talks of.

I am pretty sure he does. That is why it is such a treat to casually talk to him. He not only knows his stuff he can give you logical reasons why confusion happens. Probably most of the honey I have harvested from my hives was golden rod and light in color which I couldn't understand until now. I don't see much knot weed in my area.

Re: Golden rod honey, dark or light

I don't know why you would be so sure of that Acebird. There are a number of different Goldenrods right here in NY, so maybe the Goldenrod in SC is different also, a different variety or strain. Soil composition has something to do w/ color in honey too.

Midwest clover honey is quite different from NY clover honey, for instance.

Re: Golden rod honey, dark or light

I agree with sqkcrk..... In Kentucky, the goldenrod blooms too late in the summer (early fall) to harvest honey, that would be predominately from goldenrod blooms. There will always be some mix. If you take a few frames late in the year, where goldenrod is the predominate blooms, our goldenrod is normally dark, but may very well be mixed with asters, or other blooms.

Does goldenrod bloom early enough in New York, (other Northern States), to get honey that is predominately from goldenrod. Not really feazible in my area in Kentucky. I have about 35 hives in a 125 acre field that will be almost exclusively goldenrod, pure yellow, from the last of August to first of September. but, I don't harvest any that late in the season.

Re: Golden rod honey, dark or light

Re: Golden rod honey, dark or light

Quite often in NY there are two flow seasons, the early honey, from all sorts of plants and trees after the apple blossom, and then the late honey from goldenrod, bamboo, knapweed, and clover. Some folks will get aster too. But I have never had aster bloom early enough for my bees to get any of it, as far as I know. If they do, they keep it because I have finished taking honey by then and it's time to ship those hives South.